2i4 THE PORTAL OF EVOLUTION 



roots of the trunk of the tree of existence, yet their rot and 

 decay tend, in some form or other, to produce the good of 

 the rest of the family or nation in much the same manner as 

 the autumn leaves when they fall, fertilize the growth of the 

 forest trees and the seedlings that grow up beneath the shadow 

 of their boughs and limbs. So those who deteriorate by con- 

 trast add to the brightness and lustre of those who succeed 

 by giving them the means to practise the virtues of Mercy, 

 Charity and Forgiveness. 



What more powerful incentive can there be to prevent 

 waste of time and acts of crime and selfishness than the 

 belief that our sins, faults and failings will be visited, not 

 only in our own lifetime by sickness, poverty and humiliation 

 on ourselves, but will condemn some, if not all of our children 

 to eternal damnation, poverty and loss of immortality. 



This is the manner in which evolution points out that man- 

 kind has been and is going to be perfected and made more 

 magnificent as he is pruned, by the advance of time, of all the 

 dying, dead and broken limbs of failure, indolence and folly, 

 all of which will, as we evolve, be cut out by the ruthless 

 pruning-knife of the laws of fate and of descent and the survival 

 of the fittest, until our family blooms as a full-grown tree in 

 the eternal forest of heaven. 



" And why take ye thought for raiment, consider the lillies 

 of the field how they grow, they toil not neither do they spin, 

 and yet I say unto you that e\en Solomon in all his glory was 

 not arrayed like one of these. Wherefore if God so clothed the 

 grass of the field which to-day is and to-morrow is cast into the 

 oven, shall he not much more clothe ye, O ye of little faith." 



So it appears to me that the life of the mind and soul of 

 mankind are but the leaves of the family tree of the soul, and 

 that each family of souls bears the same relation to the 

 nation or race as each tree does to the forest, so in our bodies 

 and souls our individual lives are but a slightly varied redupli- 

 cation of the souls and minds of our parents or ancestors, 

 subject to such slight alterations as variation may produce in 

 the ordinary course of evolution. So also our minds and souls 

 are but a gradual development of the minds of the men and 

 animals who have preceded us. Hence, it seems to me that our 

 souls must likewise be evolved in the same manner and upon 

 the same lines and principles, with the one difference that 



